Iran has given an assurance that it would stop enriching uranium to 20 percent purity if
world powers agreed to a proposed nuclear fuel swap, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Wednesday.

The offer, conveyed to the Turkish minister on Sunday, could bode well for an expected resumption of talks in September between Iran and six major powers on the Islamic Republic's nuclear program.

Iran is ready for "effective cooperation" to resolve the dispute over its nuclear program, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in an interview with state media.

"We said that we will talk with P5+1 as of early September, but there are some conditions," Ahmadinejad told Press TV on Monday. "One of the conditions is that others should be present in the discussions as well."

The P5+1 consists of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- the United States, Russia, China, France and United Kingdom -- and Germany.

The Iranian leader said the conditions for talks include the P5+1 members announcing their positions on Israel having nuclear weapons.

Source Rejects Reports on Japanese Oil Tanker Blast in Strait of Hormuz

An informed source on Wednesday rejected media reports about an explosion on a Japanese supertanker in the Strait of Hormuz, stressing that the Japanese ship was outside Iran's territorial waters when the explosion occurred.

"The tanker's deck caught fire for unknown reasons outside the Strait (Hormuz) and outside Iran's territorial waters and the ship was later transferred to Diba port in Oman with the help of the Omani forces," the source told FNA on the condition of anonymity.

"Therefore the news about the blast on the ship in the Strait of Hormuz are denied," the source added.

Associated Press, CNN, Kyodo News and a number of other media outlets alleged in reports earlier that the M. Star supertanker was damaged in an explosion while sailing in the Strait of Hormuz

A blast aboard a Japanese oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic entryway to the oil-rich Persian Gulf, may have been an attack, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd. (9104.TO), which owns the vessel, said Wednesday.

The cause for the explosion was "maybe an attack, not a spontaneous accident, it may be a terrorist attack," Junto Endoh, general manager in the Doha liaison office for Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, told Zawya Dow Jones over the phone from Qatar.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has inaugurated a policy to encourage population growth, dismissing decades of internationally acclaimed family planning as ungodly and a Western import.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, seen here holding a baby in Nicaragua in 2007, hopes to boost population in his native country. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, seen here holding a baby in Nicaragua in 2007, hopes to boost population in his native country. (Esteban Felix/Associated Press)The new government initiative will pay families about $980 Cdn for every new child and deposit another $98 or so annually into his or her bank account until age 18.

The initiative is expected to undo years of efforts to boost the economy by reducing population growth.

A recent poll conducted by a credible Iranian university centre concerning the post-election events of 2009 has found that 56 percent of participants believe President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's popularity has declined over the past year, while just 22 percent believe it has increased.

Opinions of Ahmadinejad in the capital Tehran declined, despite the fact that the president's cabinet enjoys a monopoly over state television and radio stations.

ISPA is related to Jahad Daneshgahi, an academic body that operates under the oversight of the High Council for Cultural Revolution, which is headed by President Ahmadinejad.

Jahad Daneshgahi is managed by a Board of Trustees whose members include the minister of science, research, and technology, a deputy president, the Supreme Leader's representative at the universities, and the minister of health and medical education. The organisation is well known for the surveys it conducts for governmental and security agencies.

Iran's government will cut subsidies for fuel and basic consumer goods in the second half of the new Iranian year that started on March 21, state television reported, citing Welfare Minister Sadegh Mahsouli.

The government had announced plans to slash subsidies and replace them with targeted grants for the poor, starting this summer. On May 13, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the measure would go into effect in September. Mahsouli didn't give reasons for the delay.

Newspapers continue to be seen as less important at their primary job -- being sources of information - according to the latest edition of the nine-year-old Digital Future Project from the USC Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism.

The study found that just 56% Internet users ranked newspapers as important or very important sources of information for them, down from 60% in 2008 -- and below the Internet (78%) and television (68%).

And while newspapers also regard themselves as being in the entertainment business, just 29% of users consider them as important sources of entertainment, down from 32% two years ago, and last among principal media.

Press Roundup provides a selected summary of news from the Iranian press, and excerpts where the source is in English. Click on the link to the story to read it in full. Tehran Bureau has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. Please refer to theMedia Guideto help put the stories in perspective. You can follow other news stories through our Twitter feed.

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Wow. $98 a year for a child. That'll last about 2 weeks of expenses. If that!